Desk Murder

Subject deals with the legacy of the Holocaust and the banality of evil unleased by faceless bureaucrats. The final title was chosen 14 years after the artist began the painting when he read the obituary of Walter Rauff, 'Schreibtischtaeter' ('desk-murderer'), an SS officer who designed mobile gas vans used before concerntration camps became operational. The fragment of canvas attached to the centre of the work depicts a fume-emitting contraption representing the latter.

In 2010, the Art Fund spearheaded a £3.3m campaign to save the glittering Staffordshire Hoard for the West Midlands. Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is now the joint owner of this unparalleled collection of objects dating from the 6th to 8th centuries. Comprising more than 1,500 pieces of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver, many encrusted with precious stones, the extraordinary treasure was unearthed in a field in Staffordshire in 2009. To date, archaeologists are still trying to discover the origins of the treasure and why it was buried – although the expensive materials and craftsmanship suggest it was once owned by royalty. The other half of the collection is owned by the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent.

Giovanni Bellini's Madonna enthroned with SS Peter and Mark and a Donor (1505) is a key work from the Renaissance. It was acquired with our help in 1977 after a three-month fundraising campaign.

The bold colours and flattened perspective in Red and White Still Life (1964) are characteristic of Patrick Caulfield's stylised approach to painting, which he began developing in the early 1960s. This work was bought with our help in 1998.

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the New Art Gallery Walsall were awarded £1million to spend on international contemporary art through the Art Fund International funding scheme. Discover how works of art from across the globe came to the West Midlands with our interactive map.